Monday?s Expert League Wrap - Round 12, 2006

|

Wednesday?s thrilling State of Origin saw New South Wales draw first blood with a narrow 17-16 win over Queensland. Afterwards we got back to the business of NRL football and two days later, Friday night football kicked off in Newcastle with the St George Illawarra Dragons cruising to a 38-12 victory over the Knights.

Sunday football saw the third match of the week decided by a field goal with the Storm pipping the Penrith Panthers 17-16 in Melbourne. Meanwhile, the Eels posted a much needed win in hanging on to defeat the Sydney Roosters 22-20 in Parramatta. The round wrapped up at Telstra Stadium with Wests Tigers thrashing the South Sydney Rabbitohs by 44-4.

After 12 rounds of football, the NRL ladder has the Broncos leading the way on 18 points. Second-placed Melbourne Storm are also on 18 points. The Cowboys, Knights and Bulldogs are one win away on 16 points. The Sharks, Sea Eagles and Dragons are all 14 points to complete the top eight.

All match results and details are listed below.

LeagueUnlimited.com Player AwardsThe LeagueUnlimited.com Player Awards are hotting up with full back Greg Inglis (Storm), five eighth Johnathan Thurston (Cowboys) on 17 points and sharing top spot on the leader board. Not far away is Storm hooker Cameron Smith on 16 points. Meanwhile Knights half back Andrew Johns is well within striking range on 15 points.

Also well in contention is half back Matt Orford (Sea Eagles) on 14 points. Adam Dykes (Sharks) is on 13 points while goal-kicking winger Hazem El Masri (Bulldogs) is on 12 points. A number of players have jumped up to 11 points with Mark Gasnier (Dragons), Karmichael Hunt (Broncos), Darren Lockyer (Broncos) and Clinton Schifcofske (Raiders) all throwing down the challenge.

The full leader board is below.

The Leagueunlimited.com players of the match are decided by our live score updaters and tallied here each week on Monday?s Expert League wrap.